Posted by Magnus Smith on May 01, 2015 at 03:13:48 user Magnus.
In Reply to: Re: World Wide Words posted by Mike Field on April 29, 2015 at 18:46:42:
Mike asked "How does a type of ship turn into an awkward or inexperienced marine?" and I can easily see this happening, though I don't have a very learned answer.
If you work within the marine/maritime sector, you may naturally create insults/praise which make use of technical terminology from your sector. If there is a type of boat that is harder to steer, or less seaworthy, than other boats...then you can liken that behaviour to that stumbling bloke who works on C deck. You start with "did you see him stumbling? He moves as badly as a galliot!" and that eventually becomes "what a galliot".
Similarly, a sailor might express contempt for a drink by calling it "bilge water", and eventually we find the word "bilge" enters common slang for anything rubbish, not just limited to liquids.
I recall AR corresponded with a friend about the progress of his current book, and said he had written X "pages of utter bilge", or something similar.
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